TECHNIQUES TO AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFY PARTICIPANTS FOR A MULTIMEDIA CONFERENCE EVENT

• US 20090210491A1
• Filed: 02/20/2008
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sharma, Kapil, Cutler, Ross G., Bhattacharjee, Avronil, Thakkar, Pulin, Hawkins, Quinn
• Application Number:
  US12/033,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20090210491A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Techniques to automatically identify participants for a multimedia conference event are described. An apparatus may comprise a content-based annotation component operative to receive a meeting invitee list for a multimedia conference event. The content-based annotation component may receive multiple input media streams from multiple meeting consoles. The content-based annotation component may annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each participant within each input media stream to form a corresponding annotated media stream. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a meeting invitee list for a multimedia conference event;

receiving multiple input media streams from multiple meeting consoles; and

annotating media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each participant within each input media stream to form a corresponding annotated media stream.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

detecting a number of participants in each input media stream;

mapping a meeting invitee to each detected participant;

retrieving identifying information for each mapped participant; and

annotating media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant within each input media stream to form the corresponding annotated media stream.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising:

determining a number of participants in a first input media stream equals one participant; and

mapping a meeting invitee to a participant in the first input media stream based on a media source for the first input media stream.

4. The method of claim 2, comprising:

determining a number of participants in a second input media stream equals more than one participant; and

mapping a meeting invitee to a participant in the second input media stream based on face signatures or voice signatures.

5. The method of claim 2, comprising determining location information for a mapped participant within a media frame or successive media frames of an input media stream, the location information comprising a center coordinate and boundary area for the mapped participant.

6. The method of claim 2, comprising annotating media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant based on location information for each mapped participant.

7. The method of claim 2, comprising annotating media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant within a boundary area around a center coordinate for a determined location of the mapped participant.

8. The method of claim 2, comprising combining multiple annotated media streams into a mixed output media stream for display by multiple meeting consoles.

9. An article comprising a storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

receive a meeting invitee list for a multimedia conference event;

receive multiple input media streams from multiple meeting consoles; and

annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each participant within each input media stream to form a corresponding annotated media stream.

10. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to:

detect a number of participants in each input media stream;

map a meeting invitee to each detected participant;

retrieve identifying information for each mapped participant; and

annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant within each input media stream to form the corresponding annotated media stream.

11. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to:

determine a number of participants in a first input media stream equals one participant; and

map a meeting invitee to a participant in the first input media stream based on a media source for the first input media stream.

12. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to:

determine a number of participants in a second input media stream equals more than one participant; and

map a meeting invitee to a participant in the second input media stream based on face signatures or voice signatures.

13. An apparatus comprising a content-based annotation component operative to receive a meeting invitee list for a multimedia conference event, receive multiple input media streams from multiple meeting consoles, and annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each participant within each input media stream to form a corresponding annotated media stream.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, the content-based annotation component comprising:

a media analysis module operative to detect a number of participants in each input media stream;

a participant identification module communicatively coupled to the media analysis module, the participant identification module operative to map a meeting invitee to each detected participant, and retrieve identifying information for each mapped participant; and

a media annotation module communicatively coupled to the participant identification module, the media annotation module operative to annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant within each input media stream to form the corresponding annotated media stream.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the participant identification module operative to determine a number of participants in a first input media stream equals one participant, and map a meeting invitee to a participant in the first input media stream based on a media source for the first input media stream.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, the participant identification module operative to determine a number of participants in a second input media stream equals more than one participant, and map a meeting invitee to a participant in the second input media stream based on face signatures, voice signatures, or a combination of face signatures and voice signatures.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, comprising a location module communicatively coupled to the media annotation module, the location module operative to determine location information for a mapped participant within a media frame or successive media frames of an input media stream, the location information comprising a center coordinate and boundary area for the mapped participant.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, the media annotation module to annotate media frames of each input media stream with identifying information for each mapped participant based on location information.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, comprising a media mixing module communicatively coupled to the media annotation module, the media mixing module operative to receive multiple annotated media streams, and combine the multiple annotated media streams into a mixed output media stream for display by multiple meeting consoles.

20. The apparatus of claim 14, a multimedia conferencing server operative to manage multimedia conferencing operations for the multimedia conference event between the multiple meeting consoles, the multimedia conferencing server comprising the content-based annotation component.